1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to unitizing and simplifying the components that go into assembly of the two-row tapered roller bearing for vehicle wheels and for other uses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in certain examples of the relevant prior art to provide vehicle wheel hubs with interfitted parts rotating relative to each other and double row ball bearings, with one of the parts designed to engage on a wheel shaft or spindle and the other part to connect up to a wheel and brake support. An early form of such an assembly is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,037,982 of Apr. 21, 1936. This was followed in 1968 by British Patents 1,254,552 and 1,254,553 which still adhered to a two row ball bearing hub having complicated multi-part components. The art in 1971 still continued to develop two row ball bearing hubs, as seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,583,511 and 3,589,747, followed in 1973 by U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,933. All of these patents embodied multi-part assemblies which presented problems of manufacture of the parts and difficulty in obtaining adjustments because of the many parts and tolerance factors, all of which increased the cost.
The art also contains U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,420,589 of Jan. 7, 1969 and 3,578,831 of May 18, 1971 directed to a single row tapered roller bearing assembly which displayed a unitized bearing that could better withstand thrust in both directions on a shaft mounted in the bearing. The problem with this bearing is that the current thrust loads are far too great for a single row tapered roller set. Furthermore, there was at that time a problem of not being able, in going to a two row tapered roller assembly, to get a full complement of tapered rollers in each of two adjacent raceways. In addition, the prior art contains U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,498 of Dec. 5, 1972 which relates to pre-stressing a bearing rib and race prior to welding them into assembly.